Good evening and welcome to the Festival of Libra. The keynote that we’ll work with in meditation is "I choose the way which leads between the two great lines of force." The keynote of Libra does say "I choose", but interestingly, for Libra the choice is not this or that, either-or, but that of a third way, a unifying, synthesizing factor: "The way which leads between the two great lines of force" which are those of spirit and matter. The soul or consciousness is the mediator between spirit and matter. It’s the light that illumines the essential divinity within every atom of substance. And it’s the light that reveals the path of manifestation, of expression in form, that is required by spirit if God is to make Himself known to His creation.

The soul serves as a bridge between spirit and matter, and the new group of world servers is the expression of the soul of humanity, for it serves as a bridge between the Hierarchy and humanity. In our meditation, which is an approach to the Hierarchy, we and all the groups meditating as we are, seek to reinforce the bridge linking Hierarchy, the Kingdom of Souls, and humanity. Let us take a few moments to visualize this bridge uniting Hierarchy and humanity through the intercession of the worldwide meditating group. And let us visualize the Hierarchy, from its plane, approaching the worldwide meditating group as it does each month at the time of the full moon. Let us visualize the Hierarchy radiating Light and Love towards humanity, via this bridge in consciousness. Then let us say together the ancient prayer, the Gayatri:

O Thou Who givest sustenance to the universe,
From Whom all things proceed,
To Whom all things return,
Unveil to us the face of the true Spiritual Sun
Hidden by a disc of golden Light
That we may know the Truth
And do our whole duty
As we journey to Thy sacred feet.

Once again we have reached that pivotal stage in the annual cycle of zodiacal Festivals, the sign of Libra. It is pivotal because for a person just stepping on the path of return it represents a stage where the powerful influence of the soul is beginning to be felt, thus perhaps inducing conflict in his daily life. At this point he may not realize that his conflicting sense of values is being caused by a stronger presence of his own higher self. And that self may be impressing him with a different purpose for his life, a purpose that may conflict with what his lower personal self may desire. So he is faced with a choice: to continue with his totally self-centered, materially oriented way of living, or begin to seriously heed and express the decentralized, all-inclusive, loving qualities of his inner spiritual self. Under the influence of Libra it may be a matter of finding a right point of balance between these two extremes--a midway path that encompasses some of both ways, the material and the purely spiritual--the way between the two great lines of force.

The midway path is not a question of choosing either the material or the purely spiritual way of life. Our basic state of being, our soul self, is of the spirit. But as long as we are serving in the material world, that is also part of who we are. The task before us is really one of constant molding and shaping the material substance of our lower nature; it is a refining process, of attracting a finer grade of material substance and energies that will better reflect and radiate the purity of the inner soul, and to release that light into the world.

But the presence of this added light is what can cause conflict in the life of our personality nature. At this point in the long, historic journey of the incarnating soul it has reached a crucial stage in the refining of consciousness. The Tibetan describes it as "the activity wherein the personality grows and develops, and yet at the same time it veils and hides the hidden 'man of the heart,' which is the Christ, within each human form. You have then the interlude wherein the point of balance is reached between these two and neither is dominant. The 'scales tip back and forth' in either direction or—as it is sometimes expressed—man swings between the pairs of opposites. Hence the importance of this sign in the life expression of the man and hence also its peculiar difficulty; it provides the curious see-saw experience which proves so distressingly bewildering first to the man who seeks to be entirely human but finds within himself impediments and urges which drive him on to something which is higher than the human and secondly, to the aspirant or the disciple. His focus of interest and his aim is soul life, yet he finds within himself that which seeks ever to draw him back to the old ways, the old habits and the old desires."

Libra is "the place of judgment", a time when really hard decisions have to be made. In a real sense, this is where humanity stands today because we see both of these strong forces--the spiritual and the material--working out through human choices. On the one hand, there is the strong force of materialism luring us to acquire more things; things that keep us preoccupied and imprisoned by the material world. On the other hand, the spiritual values of loving inclusiveness, sharing, cooperation and goodwill are being expressed as a spontaneous reaction of the soul by many in the human family.

For a disciple at this stage, or for one who has made a commitment to the disciplines of the path of return, this represents a period of much internal questioning of his own motives and values. Where does he begin the process of extracting himself from this totally material existence? The light of the soul is impressing him with a new vision of the only way ahead. That vision comes from within himself, so that is where the process of change should begin--from within himself.

As one looks deep within himself he soon realizes that it is the power of desire that must be brought under control. Unknowingly, we tend to be ruled by the power of desire. Desire rules and we use the mind to justify desires excess. We may say we can afford to buy all these material things even though we don't really need them; so what's the harm?" No apparent harm. In fact, our national economy depends on that very attitude for its vitality and growth. But it is a place to start in the search for rightly balancing the power of desire.

The real problem isn't the material things; we all need some material things to survive--food, clothing, shelter, etc. The real problem lies in controlling the power that material things emit. It is the inherent power of material things that draws us in. Our desire nature is very susceptible to this power and often craves it. It is this powerful force that needs balancing. And we can use the balancing power of the Libra influence to act as a counterweight on the scales of judgment. This should work out through the individual and within humanity as a whole. "There is therefore", says the Tibetan, "the individual experience in Libra of the balanced life wherein experiment is made and the consequent tipping of the Scales in one direction or another until either desire or spiritual aspiration weighs the balances down sufficiently so as to indicate the way that the man must go at the time. There is the experience of humanity in Libra in which the same adjustments and experiments are being made, but this time the entire race of men is involved and not just an individual. This group experience, carried out upon the mental plane, will only happen when all men are polarised mentally and will take place and constitute the Judgment day, referred to above. Of this, the "point of crisis" in Libra and the present world situation and needed adjustment is the forerunner; this time the balancing is, however, upon the astral plane and the desires of men are predominantly in a position of casting the deciding factor, whereas in the next great cycle it will be the minds of men which will do the deciding. Today, the foremost men of the age—disciples, aspirants and the intelligentsia—are being tested under the Scorpio experience whilst the masses are in the Scales; the weight of mass desire will turn them either up towards spiritual decision or down towards material and selfish ends."

Another way in which the Libra influence can be effective in dealing with the major issues of today's world lies in the practice of tolerance. There seems to be so much today in the way of extremes--in politics and religion in particular--that needs to be tolerated if we are to maintain a balanced society. Isn't it when we've reached the point where we just can't tolerate something that we begin to feel the pull of the polar opposite? The trick is to register this pull in order to better navigate the middle way without going all the way to the other extreme. It's defined as the capacity for or practise of allowing or respecting the nature, beliefs or behaviour of others as well as the capacity to endure. It comes from the Latin word, "tollere", which means to lift up. And the uplifting aspect of tolerance ties in with the fact that, according to the Tibetan, tolerance is the first expression of buddhic understanding. And buddhic understanding is related to the intuition which is the "synthetic and immediate grasp of the truth, as it essentially exists." When faced with so many clashing polarities in this world can we see how having a synthetic and intuitive grasp of the truth could help one to choose the wisest course between polar opposites? The problem is that this intuitive, buddhic understanding is a quality possessed by only a few advanced members of humanity. So for the rest of us, tolerance may serve as a lesser, yet nevertheless useful, substitute. The recognition of tolerance as a virtue occurred fairly recently in human history in comparison with virtues such as patience and humility which world scriptures have mentioned for millennia. This rather recent entrance of tolerance into human awareness may explain why tolerance itself is often manifested in such an unbalanced fashion. Because even tolerance can be carried to an extreme, to an overly tolerant attitude. Over-tolerance of anything that is defined as different has removed the factor of mental discrimination and judgement, say, for one to do anything or say anything he or she wants, and in the process what began as a virtue, tolerance, can become a vice, over-tolerance. Yet in relating this to Libra, perhaps this current swing toward over-tolerance is in the nature of a correcting mechanism to address past tendencies toward intolerance. Both sides of any polarity must be known and experienced in order to consciously choose to walk the razor-edge path.

Couldn't we say this is what is happening with the efforts to combat global warming? The effort is to bring earth's atmosphere and the purity of the air, the water and the land back into a state of balance. This global movement created by human choices seems very much to be under the influence of Libra as it effects man-made and spiritual laws. As we know, the Tibetan has said that the influence of Libra would become more dominant at the end of the 20th century.

Humanity as a whole is today facing this great struggle with the opposites. The judicial impact of Libra, along with the magnetic and destructive touch of the Shamballa force is bringing many of these opposites into the light, bringing the extremes up for resolution. A few decades ago the Tibetan wrote of a previous period of world tension, but his words are still applicable today. "World tension today", he said, "consists in the fact that physical force and etheric energy are at grips. (The physical and the etheric are the first basic pairs of opposites that one has to deal with). Etheric force is closely related to the Monad or the highest spiritual aspect. It is life itself on the verge of externalization. Hence the emphasis today upon the spirit of humanity, upon the spirit of a nation, and the spirit of a group. This is all the result of the battle going on between this pair of opposites in the field of human affairs and in the field of individual average human living. It is, however, this conflict—fought out to the point of synthesis and of at-one-ment—which produces the re-orientation of the race and of the individual to the truer values and to the world of reality. It is this conflict—successfully waged—which lands the man, as an individual, and the mass, as a whole, upon the Path of Purification. When there is unification of these energies upon the physical plane, you then have one-pointed activity and a determination to travel in a specific direction. There follows the resolution…of the duality into a unity."

The impact of Libra and Shamballa, working together, is forcing individuals, groups and nations to make hard choices, particularly in the fields of politics, religion and in the world economy. The imprisoning attachments we have in all these fields are more and more evident, which is all to the good. We hang on to our old religious beliefs, thinking that they are the chosen way of God. We hang on to our political beliefs because we desire the illusions of power they seem to bring. And we become blinded by the economic power of "having" while not seeing the poverty of those who "have not."

These tough choices are being forced upon us because of where we human beings stand on the Path, be it the Path of Purification or the Path of Discipleship. It is time, according to the timing of the Plan, to move the revelation forward, and to envision the greater things to come that lie just over the horizon—those greater things of the Kingdom of God. Somehow we have to find that light that will help us to "choose the way which leads between the two great lines of force", and find the center point of balance. In our meditative work this evening we can help to strengthen the vision of right, balanced relationships which will help build a bridge of light for the feet of the coming Christ.

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Dale McKechnie

New York, September 25, 2007